The thorn birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early 1900s when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to the vast Australian sheep station of Drogheda, and it ends more than half a century later with the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill. Wonderful characters people this book: strong and gentle Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her; violent, tormented Frank, and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda all their energy and devotion; as well as Meggie, Ralph, and Meggie's children. And there is the land itself: stark, relentless in its demands, brilliant in its flowering, prey to gigantic cycles of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.